City of Swords (17 page)

And Ellen Reid smiled with relief.

The first time that Luciano had been on a journey on horseback from Bellezza with Rodolfo, they had sat on the same mount. But after his lessons in Remora, Luciano was now a reasonable horseman. At least he was no longer afraid of the beasts and he could manage the stages of their journey to Fortezza quite easily.

They picked up a fine pair of horses from the Ducal stables on the mainland after crossing the lagoon from Bellezza and headed south-west. Luciano hoped that Rodolfo had a clearer idea than he did about what they were to do when they reached Fortezza. Could you just walk up to an army and offer your services?

After a day on the road with only one quick stop to eat some bread and cheese, they stopped for the night in a small hill town in Tuschia. Luciano was saddle-sore and hungry, but Rodolfo was his usual self, calm and unruffled.

After a good dinner in a tavern and a bottle of wine, the two men talked late into the night.

‘As soon as you and Arianna are married,’ said Rodolfo, ‘and once all the celebrations are over, I want to talk to her again about forming an alliance with the other independent city-states.’

‘Sounds like a good plan,’ said Luciano. ‘But why now particularly?’

‘The Grand Duke is pledged to follow his father’s ideas of uniting all Talia under what Duke Niccolò referred to as a Republic.’

‘And you’ve always believed that meant ultimately a di Chimici monarchy, haven’t you?’

‘Yes. I have no doubt when one family seeks to rule all the main city-states in Talia, that is exactly what it would end up meaning,’ said Rodolfo. ‘At the moment Talia is balanced on a knife’s edge – six cities are independent and six under di Chimici rule. That is why Fabrizio is so determined to see that things go the right way in Fortezza.’

‘But Fortezza will have a di Chimici ruler whichever way things go,’ said Luciano. ‘Since they care so much about the male line and all that, Ludo would be just as much a ruler from their family as Lucia. And actually they have both been friends to us. I don’t feel comfortable helping either side.’

Rodolfo looked at him seriously. ‘Well, I think rather differently. I’m afraid Fabrizio cares more about “pure di Chimici blood” than he does about the male line of inheritance. He would never accept Ludo into the family or into his great Republic.’

‘Do you mean that Fortezza would become independent under Ludo?’ asked Luciano. ‘But if Fabrizio rejected him as a member of the family, that would make Fortezza upset the balance between the di Chimici cities and the independent ones!’

‘I think Fabrizio might lose Fortezza either way,’ said Rodolfo. ‘I don’t think, after her experience in Giglia, that Lucia would want to join in Fabrizio’s plans for domination.’

‘So what will he do?’

‘Marry her off to Filippo – that is my guess,’ said Rodolfo. ‘To make sure she wants to keep Fortezza in the family.’

Luciano shook his head like a dog trying to get water out of its ears.

‘Sometimes I really do feel that I’m living centuries behind my time,’ he said. ‘Women can’t inherit, purity of blood! It’s like another world!’

Then, realising what he had just said, he laughed and Rodolfo joined in with him.

‘I’m sorry, Luciano,’ he said, placing an arm round his old apprentice. ‘I forget sometimes that you have not always been with us.’

‘That’s all right,’ said Luciano. ‘I do too. It’s best that way.’

^*

‘Low-ra!’ said Fabio in astonishment. It had been so long since he had seen her materialise in his workshop that he had forgotten how startling it was.

Laura looked round the swordsmith’s with satisfaction. It felt great to be back. Even though Fabio was now looking embarrassed.

‘Are you . . . quite well?’ he asked.

Of course he’d had to be told that she was in hospital, and why.

‘I am fine,’ she said. ‘Really. And I’m so sorry it’s taken me a while to get back. I had my talisman taken away.’

She stowed the little knife in the belt of her dress, looking away from Fabio so that neither of them should be embarrassed by the implications of that fact. Vicky had been wonderful, getting the knife away from Laura’s mother, but she had insisted that Laura should not take it back into her house.

So Laura had gone to stay with Isabel for a while. Ellen had been pleased that the two girls were becoming such close friends. She had worried that even Isabel had given up on her daughter last term, when she had seemed to be getting into such a state about their mock exams.

And for Laura it was a comfort to know that Isabel was keeping watch over her while she stravagated and would hide the talisman if her own mother came into the room.

‘I seem to have missed lots in Fortezza,’ she said, looking round at all the stacks of new weapons. ‘Tell me what’s happening now. Has the di Chimici army got here yet?’

‘Not as far as I know,’ said Fabio. ‘But Ludo’s breakaway army has been keeping me busy as you see.’

‘Have you seen him lately?’ asked Laura.

‘No, but his men always ask about you when they come to collect their weapons,’ said Fabio. ‘So far I’ve had to tell them that I have not seen you.’

‘What about Princess Lucia?’

‘She is in the Rocca, closely guarded,’ said Fabio. ‘But Guido Parola is with her. I am glad of that.’

‘Do people hate Ludo for what he has done?’ asked Laura.

‘Well, some might,’ said Fabio. ‘I don’t. And of course his followers are now in the majority, or he wouldn’t have the city under his control today.’

^*

The massed di Chimici forces were at that moment moving forward across the plain to Fortezza. It was a sight to inspire awe in any opponent. Five divisions under experienced
condottieri
– some with a prince or duke thrown in for ornament at the head – marched as one man. And if the uniforms were an odd mixture of colours and emblems of a variety of cities, the weaponry was sharp and plentiful.

And in the midst of them were the great siege-engines and the cannons pulled on carts by horses, the old ways of warfare alongside the modern innovations.

Rodolfo and Luciano looked down on them as they reached the edge of the plain.

‘We are too late,’ said Luciano.

‘No,’ said Rodolfo. ‘We are not joining the army, remember.’

He turned his horse and set off south away from the plain, giving Luciano no choice but to follow. As soon as they had reached a stand of trees, Rodolfo jumped from his mount and got his travelling mirror out of the saddlebag. Luciano tied both horses to trees and joined his old master.

‘This is Fabio,’ said Rodolfo, showing Luciano a dark careworn face in the glass. ‘I’ve just told him the army will be under his walls before morning.’

The two Stravaganti looked intently into the mirror and shared their thoughts with the Fortezzan swordsmith.

Laura is back
, Fabio communicated.
She is here with me now
.

Can we see her?
Luciano thought-spoke.

A pale face with a mass of dark curls not unlike Luciano’s own swam into view. Something about her tugged at an old memory, but no, he could not really remember her from school. His recollection of his old life was fading.

Welcome
. He sent the thought to her and saw her big eyes widen further, as she heard him in her head. But she didn’t know how to reciprocate.

Then Fabio was there again. Luciano felt a mass of instructions pouring out from Rodolfo to the Fortezzan. It was giving him a headache, so he went back to the horses to wait till Rodolfo had finished.

‘Well?’ he asked.

‘I have told him what Laura needs to do,’ he said. ‘But whether she will manage it remains to be seen. Now come – I think we need to cheat a bit if we are to get to Fortezza before Fabrizio does.’

It was a new sensation for Laura, having breakfast with Charlie. It wasn’t so long since she’d had a crush on her friend’s twin. In fact it was only the existence of Ludo that had pushed him out of her thoughts. And now here he was, eating cornflakes in his tracky bottoms and looking gorgeous as he passed her butter for her toast.

He was being really nice, so nice that Laura realised he must know something about what had happened to her. She pulled the sleeves of her summer dressing gown even further over her hands and was relieved when Isabel and her mother joined them.

And Charlie was thinking that Laura, who had always seemed rather a wimp to him if he’d thought about her at all, was looking quite hot in her night things. Suddenly he felt very aware of his bare chest and jumped up to go and put on a T-shirt.

‘Sleep well, girls?’ asked Sarah Evans, unaware of all the hormones sloshing around her kitchen.

They mumbled something non-committal and went to take showers and get dressed. It was a relief to Laura that Charlie then disappeared to do some revision. It was her first chance to talk properly with Isabel about what had happened the night before.

‘After I got to Fabio’s shop,’ she said, taking up the account where she had left off when Mrs Evans had brought the girls early-morning tea, ‘we got a message from Rodolfo.’

‘Through a mirror?’ asked Isabel. “I remember thinking it was a bit like having a mobile-phone system that only works for Stravaganti.’

‘Yes. And I saw the famous Luciano,’ said Laura.

At that moment Ayesha phoned to see how Laura was.

‘How was it?’ she asked.

Although Ayesha had never stravagated and didn’t want to, she was intensely interested in what the others did in the parallel world.

‘It was fine,’ said Laura. She put Ayesha on speakerphone. ‘I was just telling Bel I’ve seen Luciano.’

‘Did you give him Nick’s mother’s message?’ asked Ayesha.

‘No. I haven’t actually met him, just seen him in a mirror,’ said Laura. ‘And I can tell you it’s really weird looking into a mirror and seeing someone else’s face, not yours!’

‘Be careful how you tell Georgia,’ said Isabel. ‘Nick can be a bit off about him.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. She had a huge crush on the old Lucien before he died and Nick’s still a bit jealous.’

‘Even though he has sort of replaced Luciano here?’ said Laura. ‘I mean, he’s even been adopted by Luciano’s parents!’

‘But you saw how Vicky still yearns for Lucien,’ said Ayesha. ‘It’s not an easy business changing worlds, and Nick has issues.’

‘But what happened after you’d seen Luciano in the mirror?’ asked Isabel. ‘And where was he?’

‘He and Rodolfo were quite near Fortezza. They’d just seen the army.’

‘I can’t imagine that,’ said Ayesha.

‘I think I can,’ said Isabel. She had seen a sea battle and the results of a land one and was not keen to see another.

‘Anyway, Rodolfo wants me to stravagate into the castle tonight,’ said Laura. ‘That way I can find out what’s happening with Lucia and Guido.’

‘Can you do that?’ asked Ayesha. ‘Decide where to end up in your city?’

‘Seems like it,’ said Laura. ‘You just have to think about where you want to go and I have been inside the castle. I think it would be difficult if I hadn’t.’